Pop Music Reviews : Festival of Roots-Oriented Reggae Dominates Marley Day

The annual Bob Marley Day festivals do more than just honor the late reggae king. They provide Southern California with what amounts to a state of the reggae address.

The 11th installment, held over the weekend at the Long Beach Arena, provided what turned out to be the usual mixed message: Reggae is an expanding universe with a seemingly limitless array of evolutionary possibilities, but progress is hampered by a tenacious conservatism among artists and fans.

The bright potential was clear from just a glance at Saturday’s estimated crowd of 8,000, with ranges of age, class and culture about as wide as can be found anywhere. You were just as likely to see dreadlocks on a Deadhead as under an X cap. The scene itself was the now-familiar but still odd blend of one-love positive vibrations and a sort of communal free enterprise, with the myriad Afro-Caribbean wares and comestibles on sale in a vibrant bazaar in the arena’s lobby.

Unfortunately, the musical line-up--consistently entertaining as it was--didn’t take full advantage of this cultural dynamism. Never mind Steel Pulse, which headlined Saturday’s concerts (it was also scheduled to top Sunday’s bill, as well as today’s performance at the San Diego Sports Arena). The veteran English group is the epitome of slick professionalism, a safe, crowd-pleasing act that, save for the occasional addition of new sounds to its limited musical vocabulary, has never given much in the way of insights into reggae’s artistic future.

But the rest of Saturday’s line-up also failed to encompass reggae’s range and reach--no representatives from the exciting cross-pollinations going on between reggae and hip-hop, techno or African styles, and not even any practitioners of such progressive Jamaican forms as the colorful dancehall style. This was roots all the way.

Which isn’t to say the performers didn’t have great appeal. Second-billed Inner Circle offered strong though routine, party-time reggae--its “Bad Boys” has become familiar lately as the theme to the cinema verite TV show “Cops”--with several nods to Marley.

Charlie Chaplin, Sister Carol and Brigadier Jerry, performing separate sets before joining forces as the Ras Posse, also stuck to familiar forms laden with cheerleading pandering. Carol (best known for her spunky “Wild Thing” at the end of the film “Something Wild”) was the most charismatic of them and Jerry the most casual, confident and clear. But it’s worth noting that all three saved their most passionate performances for their Ras Posse ode to “herb.”

Jerry did provide the day’s key observation, though. “Bob Marley is gone,” he toasted in a number that declared that “Every Rasta is a star.” But he then noted, “Bob Marley was a super star.” Only when others dare ascend to that level will Marley’s legacy be fulfilled, rather than merely remembered.

Also on Sunday’s lineup were Cedella Booker (Bob Marley’s mother) and Taj Mahal. Inner Circle, the Ras Posse and Pato Banton will join Steel Pulse at the San Diego Sports Arena today.